Big Ten, Big East announce early-season series for 2015

IU's Yogi Ferrell drives by Butler's Alex Barlow during a Crossroads Classic Game in 2012. The two teams could see each other in a future Big East-Big Ten match-up.(Photo: Matt Kryger Indianapolis Star)Buy Photo

The Big East and Big Ten conferences will begin staging a four-day, eight-game early-season showdown in 2015.

The Dave Gavitt Tipoff Games, an ode to the Big East Conference's founding commissioner, will take place on a Tuesday-Friday in November to kick off the first week of the regular season.

The conferences announced the eight-year series Monday in New York.

ESPN as well as the Big Ten Network will televise games played at Big Ten venues, while Fox Sports 1 will carry games played on Big East home floors.

By the time the series commences, the Big Ten will feature 14 teams (with Rutgers and Maryland joining in July) and the Big East 10. Thus, six Big Ten teams and two Big East teams will be left out each season.

Each Big East team will participate a minimum of six times over the eight years, while Big Ten programs will participate a minimum of four times.

"We look forward to partnering with the Big Ten to stage a new series of basketball games among our schools and to pay homage to Dave Gavitt, the Big East's founder, who was an inspiration to many of us and one of the most impactful contributors in the sport of basketball," said Big East commissioner Val Ackerman. "We have natural connections with the Big Ten through our shared geographic regions, and these competitions promise some exciting new rivalries for our players, coaches and alumni. With March Madness, college basketball always ends with a flourish, and the Gavitt Tipoff Games will allow us to open the season with a bang as well."

The news is certainly a win for the Big East, which will continue to battle perceptions that the league has lost a considerable amount of its luster following the departures of longtime conference stalwarts like Connecticut, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Despite fielding two teams in the national rankings all season -- Villanova and Creighton -- no Big East team reached the Sweet 16 in 2014.

The Big Ten, on the other hand, had three teams reach the Elite Eight this spring and one -- Wisconsin -- make the Final Four.

An Indiana-Butler match-up is plausible for the Big East-Big Ten showdown in 2015 because the teams are not set to meet in the Crossroads Classic that year.

But, much like the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, the match-ups will be determined by the strength of teams.

A few more potential match-ups for Butler would include Ohio State or Illinois, two schools head coach Brandon Miller has strong ties to. Miller spent four years as an assistant under Thad Matta at OSU, and in 2012-13, he was a special assistant under John Groce at Illinois.

Michigan assistant LaVall Jordan is also a former Butler player and was a candidate for the head-coaching vacancy that went to Miller in July 2013.